This invention relates to unmanned delivery of items to specified locations using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
Traditionally, delivery companies such as UPS and FedEx deliver items to customers using delivery vehicles (e.g., trucks) which are operated by delivery people. The delivery vehicles travel a predetermined route and deliver packages to customer locations along the route. At the customer location, the delivery person verifies that the delivery location (e.g., customer address) is correct and then leaves the package in a safe place at the delivery location.
In recent years the use of UAVs has become widespread, particularly in military and recreational applications. Until recently, commercial use of UAVs was limited due to the technological constraints of UAVs (e.g., limited range, poor reliability, etc.) as well as the relatively high cost of UAVs.
Due to advances in technology and an increased prevalence of UAVs, UAVs are becoming cost effective and sufficiently reliable for use in commercial applications.
At the same time, there is a need for a cost effective, efficient means of delivering items to customers over the last miles between a delivery hub/fulfillment center and the customer's location.
Many groups have proposed using drones for delivery. Recently, Amazon has presented the idea of delivering packages to customer locations over the last mile using autonomous multi-rotor vehicles. It is unclear how the vehicles employed by these groups accurately maneuvers the drones to deliver items, verify that the delivery location is correct, or decide where to safely leave packages.